The work would not have been possible without the support of Norges forskningsråd, @erc.europa.eu via #KiloNeurons, @embo.org and @kavlifoundation.org 🧵4:4

The hero behind this remarkable tour de force is @matteoguardamagna.bsky.social together with an outstanding team including @erikhermansen.bsky.social @jocarpenter.bsky.social @clykken.bsky.social @benndunn.bsky.social @m-bmoser.bsky.social at @kavlintnu.bsky.social 🧵3:4

This suggests that the geometry of the grid-cell code arises intrinsically, independently of navigation experience. 🧵2:4

Is spatial navigation innate 🧠? Using #NeuroPixels we show that the #torus 🍩 underlying the #GridCell map exists already on day 10 in rats — before pups open eyes and ears and before they start upright walking. 🧵1:4
👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Big thanks to the team @torsteinslettmoen.bsky.social, @hannaeneqvist.bsky.social, Nienke L. De Jong, @emilierskytoen.bsky.social, @weijianzong.bsky.social,
@m-bmoser.bsky.social, at @kavlintnu.bsky.social. Funded by Norges forskningsråd, @erc.europa.eu via #KiloNeurons, and @kavlifoundation.org.

Place cells in CA1 lack topographical organization of firing locations | PNAS Topography is a well-described and well-known concept for cortical organization in primary sensory and motor cortices of mammalian brains. Similar ...

A half-century old question may have its final answer. Using high-resolution #Mini2P microscopes, we find no evidence of local topography in #PlaceCells. Place fields of neighbouring cells are no more similar than those of randomly selected cells. 🧠🗺️ Out now in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I recommend this school to anyone interested in computation in the brain - it receives excellent reviews year after year, it is highly interactive and social, and the setting is remarkable.

Correct text for post (4/6):
Sweeps bias towards a fast-moving bait during spontaneous pursuit, reorient when the animal loses and regains the target, and even reverse during backward locomotion to align with intended movement direction.
See 📹

Correct text for post (4/6):
Sweeps bias towards a fast-moving bait during spontaneous pursuit, reorient when the animal loses and regains the target, and even reverse during backward locomotion to align with intended movement direction.
See 📹

Thrilled to share w/ my eminent colleagues: @azvollan.bsky.social
@mschellenberger.bsky.social
@m-bmoser.bsky.social at @kavlintnu.bsky.social
Grateful for support by Norwegian Research Council; @erc.europa.eu by #KiloNeurons, & @kavlifoundation.org
Thanks to @rjgardner.bsky.social (6/6)

These changes occur instantly, without learning or trained goals. Rather than encoding routes to goals, theta sweeps act as a general, attention-like mechanism for continuously and selectively sampling of behaviourally relevant locations within an allocentric map. (5/6)

Whether the system can be flexibly redirected to prioritize specific locations has been unclear. Using large-scale #Neuropixels recordings in freely behaving rats, we find that both sweeps – and the internal direction signals driving them – are dynamically modulated moment by moment. (4/6)

Whether the system can be flexibly redirected to prioritize specific locations has been unclear. Using large-scale #Neuropixels recordings in freely behaving rats, we find that both sweeps – and the internal direction signals driving them – are dynamically modulated moment by moment. (3/6)

Theta sweeps are population sequences in #gridcells and #placecells that, once per theta cycle, radiate outward from the animal’s location. In baseline conditions, they alternate rigidly left-right around the head axis, generating broad, forward-oriented sampling of nearby #space. (2/6) 🧠🧹

The hippocampal map has its own attentional control signal!
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)

Whether the system can be flexibly redirected to prioritize specific locations has been unclear. Using large-scale #Neuropixels recordings in freely behaving rats, we find that both sweeps – and the internal direction signals driving them – are dynamically modulated moment by moment. (4/6)

Whether the system can be flexibly redirected to prioritize specific locations has been unclear. Using large-scale #Neuropixels recordings in freely behaving rats, we find that both sweeps – and the internal direction signals driving them – are dynamically modulated moment by moment. (3/6)

Whether the system can be flexibly redirected to prioritize specific locations has been unclear. Using large-scale #Neuropixels recordings in freely behaving rats, we find that both sweeps – and the internal direction signals driving them – are dynamically modulated moment by moment. (3/6)

Theta sweeps are population sequences in #gridcells and #placecells that, once per theta cycle, radiate outward from the animal’s location. In baseline conditions, they alternate rigidly left-right around the head axis, generating broad, forward-oriented sampling of nearby #space. (2/6) 🧠🧹

Gratulerer til Magnar Bjørås - en velfortjent og solid anerkjennelse av forskning i verdensklasse ved #NTNU!

Board chair Bjarne Foss, @m-bmoser.bsky.social @edvardmoser.bsky.social @torgrande.bsky.social HM King Harald V, Secretary General of @nasjonalforeningen.no Bo Gleditsch, Centre Directors @asgeirkf.bsky.social Gøril Rolfseng Grøntvedt and Minister of Research Sigrun Aasland @kd.regjeringen.no

Come and join us tomorrow morning to discuss the latest findings from our lab(s)! We have many highlights to share!

1/8
How can the brain create countless unique memories using a single, universal metric of space? We’ve been waiting for the answer to this for two decades!
Read it here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

5/5 Big thanks to the team and collaborators @clykken.bsky.social @beneuroscience.bsky.social @anagelhus.bsky.social @jocarpenter.bsky.social @matteoguardamagna.bsky.social @m-bmoser.bsky.social @kavlintnu.bsky.social
#Neuroscience #GridCells #PlaceCells #EpisodicMemory #Neuropixels #KiloNeurons

4/5 Conclusion: Independent phase changes across grid modules are sufficient to generate a vast array of distinct hippocampal representations.

Why this matters: Such combinatorial flexibility is a key requirement for forming episodic memories, offering a mechanism for high-capacity memory.

3/5 We discovered that when grid cell modules realigned differently between environments, hippocampal place cells remapped. Strikingly, the extent of this remapping was directly predicted by the disparity in phase changes across grid modules.

2/5 After two decades, our hypothesis for this space-to-memory transformation finally met a decisive test.
Led by our outstanding postdoc @clykken.bsky.social, we performed multi-area #Neuropixels recordings simultaneously from hippocampal place cells and multiple MEC grid cells modules in rats 🧠

Functional independence of entorhinal grid cell modules enables remapping in hippocampal place cells A systems-level understanding of cortical computation requires insight into how neural codes are transformed across distinct brain circuits. In the mammalian cortex, one of the few systems where such ...

1/5 How does the brain turn the low-dimensional, universal grid cell metric into the rich, diverse codes needed for memory in hippocampal place cells? 🧵
Preprint link 👇

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A portrait photo of Edvard Moser, next to it the following quote: "I am excited to participate at this conference, a major venue for bridging theory and experiment. Those bridges are vital to the progress of neuroscience."

In case you still need a reason to attend the #BernsteinConference, let us remind you of this year's great speaker line-up 🤩

First up is Nobel laureate @edvardmoser.bsky.social!

Be part of the bridge -- registration is open! 👉 bernstein-network.de/bernstein-co...

BonnBrain 2026 is a go!
March 23–25, Bonn (DZNE, Bonn, Germany).
Apply now: www.bonnbrain.de
Limited slots. Presentations (posters/talks) selected from submitted abstracts.

Keynotes & invited speakers 👇